The political thoughts and opinions of a pragmatic Canadian Libertarian Economist. Do not mistake me for a real journalist, this is just one man's opinion.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Reporting Death

I have spent the last 30 minutes wondering how to write this without seeming brutally insensitive, but I have a problem with how the Canadian media is reporting death in recent weeks. I could tell you the name rank and serial number of everyone who has died from swine flu, but over that same period how many Canadians died of other causes that received no national media attention whatsoever? How many Canadians have died in car accidents in the last two weeks? Is the CBC talking about vehicle safety and how to reduce risk of a fatal collision? I don't have the exact statistics in front of me but I am comfortable predicting that when any Canadian leaves the house tomorrow morning, they are at least 1000 times more likely to die in any sort vehicle collision than they are to die from pig flu. At least, if not more. Even if you don't drive, you are at least 1000 times more likely to be struck by a vehicle to death than you are to die of the pig flu.

How many Canadians have died of cancer in the last few weeks, and why don't I know any of their names? Is cancer not sexy enough to make a news story? How many people drown in backyard swimming pools last year? Is the CBC discussing pool safety? How many workers died in heavy industrial accidents in October? How many people died from bee stings this summer? And so on and so forth.

I feel sorry for the families of the people who had loved ones die of H1N1, but I don't feel as though the media and Bob Rae inciting mass hysteria benefits the country. Sure it might benefit Bob's political career to unravel the fabric of our society. I was living 45 from Toronto when SARS hit. I remember what the hysteria did to economic activity. The harm inflicted on the economy was far more destructive than the bug itself. Bob, I understand how this benefits your political career, but looking into the camera on our public broadcaster and telling people that they are going to die from swine flu is abhorrent. They are 10,000 times more likely to be struck by a car crossing the street to get to the bus stop.

Today an article reports that : ''Canada has a national stockpile of 55-million doses of two antiviral medicines — Tamiflu and Relenza. As of Oct. 26, the provinces and territories had used 1,046,671 doses since H1N1 struck in April.''

So as of the last week in October, 1 million people were sick enough to receive flu meds and 91 persons haved died, and likely millions more have had this mild flu and the stats are unreported,6 million people were given the vaccine (I assume they were not sick).